Eleven-year-old Hudson Anthony just earned the nickname "Shark Bait" among his friends at Presbyterian Day School.

Hudson survived being a noon-time snack for a sand shark during the school's recent fall break. He pulled his right heel out of a shark's mouth near Santa Rosa, Fla. The shark attack occurred Oct. 8 as the East Memphis family of six enjoyed a few days on the beach near Santa Rosa.

Hudson was standing alone in a school of minnows in waist-deep water with a fishing net. "I felt this intense, sharp pain. I saw the big gash and it freaked me out. I started screaming for help," he said.

Hudson never saw what bit him: "It came up from behind me. I didn't know what got me, but I knew it was really bad."

When he heard his son screaming, Rev. Darrin "Rocky" Anthony said he thought Hudson, the youngest of four children, had been stung by a jelly fish. But one look at the deep cut and he knew it was either a shark or a barracuda.

"I'm just grateful the shark didn't bite anything off," Anthony said.

Once they arrived at Sacred Heart Hospital in Santa Rosa, the family learned from hospital officials that a school of minnows is the last place a swimmer needs to be, as sharks often feed there. Based on the cut, which required two layers of stitches and eight stitches on top, Anthony, the pastoral executive at Second Presbyterian, said hospital officials speculated the gash came from a four- to five-foot sand shark.

This is the second time Hudson has survived a close call.

When he was about to turn 5, Hudson fell into a lake on another family fall break. By the time his father reached him, Hudson was lying face down in the water with no pulse. "If he's been born with nine lives," his father said, "he's down to seven. We're praying he doesn't use anymore."